System for the replacement of rolling-mill rolls

ABSTRACT

A pair of rolling-mill rolls, to be replaceably inserted in a rolling-mill stand, is mounted upon a skid carried parallel to the rolling direction and shiftable bodily in the horizontal transverse direction to carry the rolls into the stand. The members of the skid are provided with hydraulic ducts connected to positioning cylinders on the lower roll for spacing the rolls apart.

United States Patent Sevenich et a1.

[54] SYSTEM FOR THE REPLACEMENT OF ROLLING-MILL ROLLS [721 Inventors: Theodor Sevenich, Dortmund;

Friedrich Zahn, Dortmund-Kleinholthausen; Peter Zens, Dortmund- Kirchdeme, all of Germany [73] Assignee: Maschinenund Werkzeugbau GmbH, Dortmund-Hombruch, Germany [22] Filed: Oct. 14, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 80,666

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 18,1969 Germany ..P 19 52 646.6

[52] US. Cl .,...72/239 [51] Int. Cl. ....B21b 31/08, B2lb 31/10, B2lb 31/32 [58] Field of Search ..72/236, 237, 238, 239, 241,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,037,210 4/1936 Buente ..72/239 [151 3,695,080 1 Oct. 3, 1972 3,180,125 4/ 1965 OBrien ..72/239 3,406,552 10/ 1968 Krauss et al. ..72/236 3,433,046 3/ 1969 Remner et a1. ..72/239 3,436,945 4/1969 Karnkowski ..72/239 3,438,234 4/1969 Adair ..72/239 3,446,050 5/ 1 969 O'Brien ..72/239 3,459,023 8/1969 Adair ..72/ 238 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 575,486 4/1933 Germany Primary Examiner-Charles W. Lanham Assistant Examiner-E. M. Combs Att0rney1(arl F. Ross [57] ABSTRACT A pair of rolling-mill rolls, to be replaceably inserted in a rolling-mill stand, is mounted upon a skid carried parallel to the rolling direction and shiftable bodily in the horizontal transverse direction to carry the rolls into the stand. The members of theskid are provided with hydraulic ducts connected to positioning cylinders on the lower roll for spacing the rolls apart.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEU 3,695,080

sum 1 or 2 'FIG.|

T. SEVENICH F. ZAHN P. ZENS BY am 9- ATTORNEY & v INVEN'TORS.

PATENTEBHBH I972 sum a nr 2 INVENTORS, T. SEVENICH F. ZAHN BY P. ZENS .761, Tau

ATTORNEY FIELD OF THE INVENTION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION A rolling mill for billets, a blooms, bars and other elongated workpieces generally comprises a plurality of installations spaced along the rolling path, each including a rolling-mill stand and a pair of horizontal working rolls joumaled therein for squeezing the elongated workpiece between them. Such mills are employed, for example, in the continuous rolling of strip, band and sheet stock from metal billets, blooms, ingots, bars and the like.

Frequently, the rolling-mill stand also carries a pair of back-up rolls respectively engaging and tangent to the upper and lower working rolls and having axes of rotation coplanar therewith for supporting the working rolls against the bending pressures generated when a workpiece of larger thickness than the rolling gap is forced between the working rolls. The working rolls may each be provided with a journal at its opposite ends which are held in the rolling-mill stand, support or frame and serves to enable the rolling-gap width to be adjusted to the thickness necessary for strip, band and sheet stock. The adjusting means may include a hydraulic, jack or like piston-and-cylinder arrangement disposed between the journal blocks of the working rolls.

Since the working rolls are subject to severe mechanical and thermal stresses, and the surface equal of the working rolls determines the characteristicsof the'finished material, it is necessary to provide for exchange, replacement or interchange of the working rolls. I

Consequently prior art systems have provided means whereby the working rolls of a rolling-mill stand can be removed and introduced without necessitating a complete disassembly of the entire installation.

Such systems have generally provided a means for positioning one or more working rolls along a side of the rolling-mill stand, means for lifting the rolls therein and laterally shifting the rolls out of the stand, and means for feeding a fresh roll into the stand also in the lateral direction. For a proper orientation with respect to these directions, it is important to note that the rolling path is tangential to the working rolls and is horizontal while the rolls have horizontal axes parallel to one another (and to any back-up rolls) and parallel to the surface of the rolled body but running transversely to the rolling direction. Hence, when reference is made herein to lateral insertion or removal of the working rolls, it is intended to so describe a movement of the working rolls parallel to or in the direction of their axes, but transversely to the rolling direction. Each rolling-mill stand may be provided with an opening through which the lateral movement of the rolls isenabled.

For the most part, the prior art systems for replacing the working rolls of a rolling mill have requiredlarge amounts of manual labor, long downtimes for the installation, etc.

' OBJECT OF THE INVENTION It is the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved rolling-mill installation and system for replacing the working rolls thereof whereby the aforementioned disadvantages are obviated.

It .is another object of the invention to provide an improved system for removing working rolls from and introducing working rolls to a rolling-mill installation which requires a minimum of manual labor and also minimizes the downtime of the installation.

A further object of the is the provision of an improved system for replacing the working rolls of a rolling mill for the production of continuous bands or strips of metal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained, in accordance with the present invention, in a system for replacing the working rolls of a rolling mill and which comprises a skid carrying the working rolls and shiftable in a direction parallel to the rolling direction ahead of an opening provided in the rolling-mill stand and into which the working rolls are subsequently inserted. The skid has an opening through which the lower roll rests upon its backing roll.

More specifically, the apparatus for replacing the working rolls of a rolling mill and especially the working rolls of continuously operating strip or band rolling mills comprises a plate or platform displaceable by a suitable drive along the rolling path and parallel to the rolling direction ahead of the rolling stand which has a lateral opening in which pairs of working rolls can be accomodated. It has been found, surprisingly, that the disadvantages of the earlier systems enumerated above can be eliminated entirely if, upon this plate, the working rolls are carried by a slide which is shiftable bodily into the rolling-mill stand and can be inserted therein and withdrawn therefrom with a pair of working rolls in superposed relation. The slide or skid may, according to this invention, cradle the lowermost working roll and' may be provided with means engageable with the insertion and retraction apparatus, i.e. a piston-and-cylinder arrangement reciprocal to withdraw the previous pair of working rolls out of the stand through the aforementioned opening or to insert a new pair of rolls through the opening once the first-mentioned pair has been removed. The skid, according to the instant invention, has a pair of longitudinally extending bars or runners along which the journal blocks of the lower working rolls rest, these journal blocks, in turn, carrying the journal blocks of the upper roll via hydraulic-jack means.

According to the instant invention, the skid is further provided with duct means connectable to a hydraulic or pneumatic network and communicating, in turn, with the fluid-responsive gap adjuster for the working rolls.. The gap adjuster may be hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders provided between the journal blocks of the lower rolls and the journal blocks of the upper rolls.

Still another feature of the present invention resides I in the provision of a snap-action, quick-release, ,highpressure coupling including a first coupling member upon the skid. and a mating coupling member upon the rolling-mill stand and interengageable automatically upon the insertion of the skid and. the working rolls carried' hereby into the stand through the opening. The coupling may be of the male-female or plug-socket type and the mating members are axially aligned along an axis which is offset from but parallel to the axis of the rolls. Preferably, the skid is formed with a cross piece (between runners) which is engageable by the fluidresponsive feed assembly and is located at the ends of the working rolls remote from their drive extremities. The drive extremities of the working rolls may, of course, be receivable in drive sockets of any conventional configuration. It has also been found to be desirable to provide the gap-adjusting means with a facility to relieve the pressure upon the working rolls when the latter is to be withdrawn from the manner previously described. For the most part, best results are obtained when the hydraulic connection is automatic as the slide or skid is inserted, the connection being made at the driving side of the stand.

The system of the present invention and described briefly above, has numerous advantages aside from the fact that it enables the working rolls with the associated journal blocks and spacer arrangement to be removed rapidly from the rolling stand, to be inserted therein or to be replaced. Of greater significance is the reduction in the amount of manual labor which has hitherto been required for positioning, displacing and reconnecting the working rolls of a rolling mill for bands'and the like.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross section taken generally transversely to the rolling direction of a rolling mill diagrammatically illustrating the invention.

FIG. 2 is anelevational view, drawn to an enlarged scale, of the replaceable rolling-roll assembly;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line III III of FIG. 2; and v FIG. 4 is an elevational view of a skid for, use with the system of FIGS. 2 and 3.

SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION In FIG. 1 of the drawing there is shown a rolling mill, in part represented at l, which comprises the usual stand la within which back-up rolls lb and 1c are journaled in respective blocks 1d and 1e. The stand la is provided with an opening 1f adapted to permit insertion andremoval of the working rolls 4 which fit into the gap 1g between the take-up rolls lb and 1c. A platform 1h upon the stand 1a serves as a guide for the skid 7 12 carrying the working rolls into the installation. The means for driving the rolls are, of course, conventional and need not be described here.

The working rolls 4, as best seen in FIGS. 1 3, each comprise a rolling central portion 4a having chamfered ends 4b and cylindrical bearing portions 4c and 4d at opposite axial extremities of the roll. At one end, each of the rolls 4 may be formed with a fitting 4e having a noncircular tongue 4f receivable in a complementary socket of the drive means.

Each of the rolls 4 is, moreover, journaled in a block 3 serving to rotatably support the rolls relative to one another and to accommodate spacing means as well as the means for adjusting the rolling gap 43. The rolls and installation illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 are those of a band or strip mill as already indicated.

As best seen in FIGS. 2 and 3, each of the lower journal blocks 30 is provided with a pair of cylinders 3b accommodating hydraulic plungers 3: which project into and are received within recesses 3d formed in the upper bearing block. When hydraulic fluid is introduced into the cylinders 3b below the plungers 30, therefore, the pairs of bearing blocks 3, 3a are urged apart.

As the rolls are inserted into the mill, the cylinders are pressurized to hold the rolls. 4 apart. Since the workpiece forced through the gap 4g is thicker than the gap width, the compression of the workpiece will generate vertical forces which are transferred by the working rolls 4 to the respective back-up rolls 1b and 10.

According to the principles of the present invention, alongside the rolling mill 1 and parallel to the direction of rolling (perpendicular to the plane of the paper in FIG. 1), there is provided a drive arrangement having one or more plates or platforms 2. The platforms 2 preferably constitute the uppersurfaces of carriages 2a which may have a chassis 2b rotatably supporting wheels 2c received in a channel-shaped track 2d and upon a flat rolling surface 2e of a guideway 2f shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1. The means for shifting the carriages along this guideway is represented diagrammatically at 2g and may be an electric or fluid motor.

As is also apparent from FIG. 1, the upper surface 2h of the platform 2 is coplanar with the surface 1h of the receiving table so that the working-roll assembly can be shifted into the installation 1 with ease.

In the vertical plane of the axes of the back-up rolls lb and 1c and, of course, of the working rolls 4 when they are in position, there is provided a pusher assembly generally represented at 5 for inserting and withdrawing the working rolls. To this end, the assembly 5 may comprise a piston-and-cylinder arrangement 5a of the telescoping type, the head 5b of which is provided with a downwardly open recess adapted to engage a hook-shaped formation 20 upon the skid as will be described in greater detail hereinafter. When the hydraulic cylinder arrangement 5a extends, therefore, itthrusts the working-roll assembly to the right (arrow A) through the opening lf in the stand la of the mill,

and thereby positions the working rolls 4 in the latter.

The head 5b is tilted upwardly to release the hook 20 and the cylinder is withdrawn. When it is desired to replace an existing set of working rolls, however, an empty platform 2 is positioned ahead of the opening 1 f, the cylinder 5a is extended to permit the head 5b to engage the hook 20 of the skid of the assembly, the cylinder 5a is retracted to withdraw the skid and the working rolls 4 carried thereby onto the platform 2, and the hook 20 is released. Prior to withdrawal of the working rolls, however, the cylinders 3b which are generically illustrated as spacer means at 14 in FIG. 2, are depressurized to bring the working rolls together and permit them to move out of the gap lg-between the back-up rolls with ease.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 4 in somewhat greater detail, it will be apparent that the skid or slide 6 carries both working rolls. More particularly, the skid is constituted as a frame or cradle for the lower rolls and the lower rolls, in turn, carry the upper roll.

The slide or skid 6 comprises a pair of longitudinal runners 7, the latter extending parallel to the axes of the working rolls 4 and in the direction in which the working rolls are shifted for introduction .into and removal from the mill. Of course, the runners 7 lie in a horizontal plane but perpendicular to the'direction of rolling. Each of the runners 7 is provided with a downwardly extending ridge 7a of narrow dimension for engagement with the platform 2 and the table 1h to reduce frictional retardation during insertion and withdrawal of the slide. The leading edge 7b and the trailing edge 70 of the ridge is beveled to facilitate transition between platform 2 and table 1h upon move- I ment of the skid in either direction. The runners 7 are I interconnected by traverses 8 such that a rectangular frame structure is provided. In FIG. 3 we show how the runners 7 are received within rectangular notches 3g of the bearing blocks 3a.

- The frame 7, 8 is made up of hollow (tubular) profiles that are interconnected into a common duct work or space 9 forming part of the hydraulic system for pressurizing the cylinders 14. For this purpose, the skid 6 is provided with at least one bore into which a right-angle high-pressure plug-type quick-release connector half 11 is threaded, the member being engageable in a complementary member not shown) in a stand (preferably on the driving side) of the rolling mill. The high-pressure quick-release coupling 11 is made and disconnected automatically upon insertion of the skid and its withdrawal by the means 5. The duct work 9 is further connected via bores 12 in slide 6 and connecting conduits 13 to the cylinders 14 of the bearing blocks 3. Thus, when hydraulic fluid is fed under pressure through the coupling 11, the working rolls 4 are urged apart and the gap 4g is thereby adjusted. Upon release of the pressure, the rolls are destressed and removal is possible.

The improvement described and illustrated is believed to admit of many modifications within the ability of persons skilled in the art, all such modifications being considered within the spirit and scope of the invention except as limited by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A rolling-mill installation comprising:

a rolling-mill stand for the rolling of a workpiece in a rolling direction, said stand defining a receiving surface alongside the rolling path, said stand having a pair of spaced-apart backing rolls; a platform shiftable in said direction alongside said stand and having an upper surface substantially aligned with said receiving surface;

work-roller assembly receivable in said stand between said backing rolls and including a skid slidable along said surface and formed with an opening, a lower working roll carried by said skid, and an upper working roll carried by said lower working roll, at least one hydraulic duct in said skid, and means for connecting said duct into a hydraulic network, said lower working roll engaging its backing roll through said opening in said skid said up er and lower working rolls are each provided wit a pair of bearing blocks; means for shifting said assembly from said platform onto said receiving surface and into said stand; hydraulic cylinders in the bearing blocks of said lower working roll acting upon the bearing blocks of the upper working roll for establishing a gap between them; and

means for connecting said duct to said cylinders.

2. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 1 wherein said means for connecting said duct to said network includes a high-pressure quick-release plugtype connector carried by said slide and automatically insertable into and releasable from a complementary connector on said stand upon displacement of said assembly into and out of said stand respectively.

3. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 2 wherein said skid is formed with a hook-shaped portion projecting beyond said working rolls and engageable by said means for shifting said assembly.

4. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 3 wherein said runners and said traverses are hollowprofile members communicating with one another to form a common space defining said duct.

5. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 4 wherein said stand forms part of the mill for rolling strip or band metal.

6. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 5 wherein said platform is formed with wheels, said installation further comprising a guide way rol-lingly engaged by said platform alongside said path. 

1. A rolling-mill installation comprising: a rolling-mill stand for the rolling of a workpiece in a rolling direction, said stand defining a receiving surface alongside the rolling path, said stand having a pair of spaced-apart backing rolls; a platform shiftable in said direction alongside said stand and having an upper surface substantially aligned with said receiving surface; a work-roller assembly receivable in said stand between said backing rolls and including a skid slidable along said surface and formed with an opening, a lower working roll carried by said skid, and an upper working roll carried by said lower working roll, at least one hydraulic duct in said skid, and means for connecting said duct into a hydraulic network, said lower working roll engaging its backing roll through said opening in said skid, said upper and lower working rolls are each provided with a pair of bearing blocks; means for shifting said assembly from said platform onto said receiving surface and into said stand; hydraulic cylinders in the bearing blocks of said lower working roll acting upon the bearing blocks of the upper working roll for establishing a gap between them; and means for connecting said duct to said cylinders.
 2. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 1 wherein said means for connecting said duct to said network includes a high-pressure quick-release plug-type connector carried by said slide and automatically insertable into and releasable from a complementary connector on said stand upon displacement of said assembly into and out of said stand respectively.
 3. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 2 wherein said skid is formed with a hook-shaped portion projecting beyond said working rolls and engageable by said means for shifting said assembly.
 4. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 3 wherein said runners and said traverses are hollow-profile members communicating with one another to form a common space defining said duct.
 5. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 4 wherein said stand forms part of the mill for rolling strip or band metal.
 6. The rolling-mill installation defined in claim 5 wherein said platform is formed with wheels, said installation further comprising a guide way rollingly engaged by said platform alongside said path. 